I’ve never been particularly interested in space. I think the fossil record is to blame. Not because paleontology takes up all the compartments in my brain for wonder or anything like that. It’s more that I don’t really care all that much about distant planets that may or may not harbor life when we have a fantastic record of strange creatures right here on Earth.

Just look at Dollocaris. I hadn’t even heard of the little Jurassic invertebrate until a few months ago, when paleontologist Jean Vannier and colleagues published a new analysis on the critter, but it immediately made me think of a little spacecraft. The small body, big eyes, and grappling appendages make the small arthropod look like one